Expecting magic from Opera Atelier's 2020-21 season

Editorial

Frankly, we should all be so lucky to get real-time commentary by Pynkoski. He's endlessly interested and interesting; he even had me craning my neck to see what he was on about with this business about downbeats being up in a choreographed fencing duel. For nearly 35 years, Opera Atelier has been putting up shows that, take it or leave it, have an aesthetic that is 100% fleshed out.

A "vital and contemporary" evening in BERLIN: The Last Cabaret

Review

With the world premiere nature of this show and the resurrection of some of this music, it should come as no surprise that the songs disappeared from our cultural lexicon because they’re not musically memorable. I kept waiting for a showstopper, but none were forthcoming

Leading ladies steal Barber of Seville at COC

Review

Directed by Joan Font with choreography by Xevi Dorca, this revival of the 2015 production with set and costumes by Joan Guillén, is described in the program notes by the director as "action that could happen" in the 19th century, or even today in Toronto. I do beg to differ.

"Disturbingly relevant": BERLIN: The Last Cabaret

Interview

"We chose July 13, 1934 for our piece, the day Hitler made a speech claiming responsibility for the "Night of the Long Knives," where two weeks prior, he ordered the S.A. division of the Nazi Party, including Röhm who uneasily protected Queer artists, massacred due to a purported threat of mutiny."

A lusty Carmina Burana from Minnesota Dance Theatre

Review

I am by no means an Orff scholar, so my analysis may be subjective. The collection of twenty four poems from a larger collection written by medieval monks with varying themes, yet this production seemed to hone in on just one: lust.

Classic, not overdone: Philippe Jaroussky and Jérôme Ducros at Wigmore Hall

Review

The Schubert-song recital is a staple and one that I find, for the most part, to be overdone. There is no denying the composer’s immense and invaluable contribution to the lieder repertory. His songs are like golden threads in the intricate tapestry that is the history of German lieder, but personally, I find that a recital programme of unrelated Schubert song to be lacking in imagination when there is a wide variety of song repertoire to be programmed in interesting and new ways.

Things we didn't ask for: Winterreise at 21C

Review

It was Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly, backed by Le Chimera Project - the unusual-for-Lieder band of clarinet, trombone, accordion, and violin - staged by director Roy Rallo. The group of artists seem to have come together precisely to develop this take on Schubert's Winterreise, and to do so from as blank an artistic slate as possible.

Hued Songs, where traditions collude and collide

Review

With 2020 underway, Hued Songs can only look forward to more exceptional work carving a unique and necessary sphere within the South Florida music scene. Moreover, Spirituals & Òrìṣàs should challenge the region’s longstanding classical music institutions to think innovatively in the new year.

Humbling theatre: Sweat

Review

"Their stories broke my heart and invited me to see the world from another's perspective; to be moved by people who I would not ordinarily encounter," writes Nottage of Sweat. "As a Black woman from Brooklyn I hadn't expected that I would be so profoundly moved by their predicament."

The Importance of Being Well-Recorded

Review

And ultimately, it's indicative of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's approach: he chooses to supplement the wordplay already present in the source, and when it works the result is delightfully cheeky in the best way. One need look no further than the way the music swells with the punchlines, the subversively domestic sounds he gets from his orchestra of two pianos and percussion, and the text setting that remains declamatory almost to a fault.